The great man does not usually rise before lunchtime so it was felt a midday press conference might be something of an ­imposition.

But a few minutes before the appointed time, the Argentina manager shuffled into the packed room at Loftus Versfeld Stadium and took his seat.

His voice was gravelly. It sounded as if he had had a heavy night. There were bags under his eyes, too. But with his heavy black and grey beard, he looked almost distinguished in his new incarnation as coach and mentor.

The place was primed for pandemonium. Maradona, after all, has form when it comes to hurling insults on this type of occasion. Lewd suggestions about sexual services ­journalists ought to perform for him are his speciality.

But he was remarkably restrained. He only mocked Pele, ridiculed Michel Platini, patronised Brazil, damned South Korea, insulted France, slated the Jabulani ball, told some teams to go home and dismissed anyone in the tournament who was not Lionel Messi.

It was, everyone agreed, one of his more balanced performances. He held court for more than half an hour, ostensibly to talk about Argentina’s match against South Korea but in reality to train his sights on anyone who strayed into his line of fire.

Pele is one of his favourite targets. The two greatest players the world have ever seen are also linked by mutual jealousy so when Maradona was told Pele had said he was only managing Argentina for the money, his response was swift and brutal: “Pele should go back to the museum.”

Next it was Platini, the Uefa president, who said recently Maradona had no discernible qualities as a manager.

“I always had a distant ­relationship with Platini,” ­Maradona said in his rasp. “It was just ‘hi’ and ‘bye’. We know how the French are and Platini is French and he believes he is better than the rest of us.

“The ball is another issue. I don’t want to go into that because everyone is talking about it but it’s important. Maybe I should ask Pele and Platini to go and play with it and take a look at the ball and stop talking about me.”

The thing is, everybody is talking about him, about whether he can prove his army of critics wrong and turn the chaos of his reign as manager during World Cup qualifying into a remarkable triumph here. What a story it would be if Maradona won the World Cup as a manager as well as a player after so many said it was madness to appoint him.

If, instead of sabotaging the most talented squad at the tournament, he inspired them to win the World Cup for the first time since he lifted it in 1986.

If Maradona’s melodramatic proclamations yesterday were to be believed, this Argentina squad is living its life in South Africa in a nirvana of ­selflessness and love for one’s team-mates. And he is presiding over this happy state like a proud and indulgent father.

Juan Sebastian Veron, Maradona said, took it “like a man” when ruled out of today’s game through injury. Carlitos (Carlos Tevez) offered to play anywhere for the cause. And so on.

The mood in the camp does seem good. They got off to a good start when they beat Nigeria in their opening group game last week and Messi showed the same kind of brilliance he so often produces for Barcelona.

Messi is the key for Maradona. There have been suggestions the two do not get along, even that Maradona is jealous of Messi’s status as his successor as the best player in the world.

But yesterday the coach was extravagant in his praise for Messi and congratulated himself for beginning to get the best out of him for the national side.

“I see him so calm, so serene and so mature it reassures me,” Maradona said. “He needed a game like the one against Nigeria. He needed to be a leader and to be charismatic.

“He has enormous qualities of team leadership but it’s something we’ve not seen from him before for Argentina. This is a player grasping his opportunity.

“I’ve seen some good performances here from people like Podolski and Maicon but none can compare to Messi’s. None of them reached even 40 per cent of what Messi did.

“South Korea is a good team built on a strong collective and hard work but with all due respect, they do not have a Messi.”

Nor do Brazil. Maradona scoffed at their victory over North Korea. “Brazil played a calm match,” he said. “Too calm. Too uneventful.”

And for teams thinking about trying to kick Messi out of his stride, Maradona added: “If you’re not here to play football why don’t you just go home.”

He ended by singing happy birthday to an Argentine journalist. He sounded a bit like Tom Waits. It’s never dull with El Diego.